An Unknown Manuscript or Fraud?

Abstract

Several years ago a prominent Georgian geologist David Are- vadze told and wrote me a letter afterwards about an old story that puzzled him at the time.

During an expedition in southeastern Turkey eight years ago he was notified about an old Syrian manuscript which was acci- dentally discovered. Mr. Arevadze complained that despite his en- deavors, he was not able to evoke the interest of the relevant circles of scholars regarding this fact.

The facts narrated by Mr. Arevadze might be hiding some fraud. However, we might be dealing with an unknown old Syrian Christian manuscript indeed.

For this reason, we have decided to publish the materials in order to spread this fact through scholarly circles.

The fact we intend to publish about is quite old and may have already been discussed by foreign researchers. On the other hand, it is also possible that this fact was not adequately analyzed as the region indicated by Mr. Arevadze is characterized by com- plicated geopolitics. Hence, we are publishing the correspondence of the geologist with the editorial team of the journal as well as some excerpts from the video material sent by him without any additional comments.